Around ten days ago, I penned a blog explaining why it was important for fans to focus carefully on the big issues at the club, rather than get bogged down in the lower level issues. Some of those lower level issues may be worthy, but when stacked up against the main concerns the club faces, they are largely meaningless. A week on, and whilst the situation has changed, it doesn't necessarily alter that principle. If you haven't got stable ownership, or if you haven't got first team management, some of what you might want the club to achieve is either not going to happen, or is going to be severely hampered.

We now know that Rob Couhig's takeover will not be going ahead, and for me that now means the club has got very different priorities on its hands. Before, the priority for the club had to be to complete the ownership change, so that the new owners could appoint their choice of first team manager, so that new manager could then decide on the released and retained list. That would have been the ideal path, and the right way to do things.

The problem the club faces now (as per my last blog) is that it is back to square one in any plans it might have had to provide either new investment, or a complete takeover. But now it finds the clock is ticking. By next weekend (at the very latest), it must publish its Released and Retained lists, or all out of contract players will by default become free agents. Unless there is a very quick resolution to the first team management vacancy, that list will almost certainly have to be based on recommendations made by outgoing Caretaker Manager Neale Marmon, rather than by whoever will be in charge of the club during the 2019-20 season.

In addition, it is almost certain that the current Yeovil Town board will have to take on the responsibility for recruiting the next first team manager. That is not ideal by any stretch of the imagination. Firstly, any recruitment will have to bear in mind that the current board's choice of manager may conflict with the views and ambitions of any future board. If they are in talks with any potential future owner then they would do well to consult with that person over their recruitment strategy - in fact for any top level agreement the prospective owner may insist on it as a starting point for negotiation.

Secondly though, any prospective first team manager may be put off if he finds that the people interviewing him for the job may not be the people he could be working under during the 2019-20 season. As per the infamous Leroy Rosenior scenario down in Torquay Unitedback in May 2007, you might find yourself out of a job inside 10 minutes! The extreme case of the Rosenior scenario does show that there are risks whilst the ownership future is uncertain - the current ownership and any interested future ownership should work together to minimise the risks here.

If the club are in talks with a new investor (they have yet to officially confirm this) then in theory they could delay the management recruitment until the new owner takes over. But as per the Rob Couhig situation, you don't know with absolute certainty that such a deal will complete, and using Port Vale's recent change of ownership it took them five weeks from the point of commercial agreement to get the necessary EFL/FA clearance, and so even for a quick deal the completion of that process could be two months away. As such, although it may cause later problems if the current and future ownership are not fully aligned, the current Board do need to commence their search now, to avoid the club being ill-prepared for the 2019-20 season. Already, the clock is ticking.

There are some minimal signs that this search may have begun. Current Bath City manager Jerry Gill was present at the Carlisle United game, sat in the Screwfix Stand. Officially, he was doing general scouting with Bath not playing on that day, but he may have also been performing a 'what if' against his future aspirations. Similarly, the reporting of Hull City first team coach Tony Pennock by his current club's local press was interesting, given that it came a few days after the takeover collapse. For any of the press reports that came in prior to the ending of the takeover talks, treat them as the clickbait they undoubtedly are - I'd be 99 percent sure that there would have been no movement towards managers during that period, and if there were any tentative contacts, then those would have been made by a Couhig regime that from a Glovers point of view no longer exists.

In terms of Gill and Pennock, they'd both fit the bill in terms of the profile of person I'd hope they'd chase after. Yes, I've seen a few people wary of the club chasing after a former player - any application for the manager's job does have to be judged on their Managerial and Coaching CV, and not on how good they were for the club - there have been a few too many 'jobs for the boys' style appointments at Huish Park over the years. However in the case of these two, they both stand up on their own merits, even if you remove the YTFC connection. Hopefully they will be supplemented with other candidates outside the YTFC sphere.

Given the club's tendency to recruit younger players, the ideal appointment would be someone who has experience of coaching or managing at Under-18 or Under-23 level. You want someone who isn't entirely brand new to management. You want someone with knowledge of football around the National League area, but also someone with a few contacts in the game at a higher level, to enable the recruitment of either released players or more quality loans. As such, Gill (Norwich City and Wolverhampton Wanderers Under-18s) and Pennock (Swansea City Academy Manager and Hull City Academy Manager and First Team Coach) have cut their teeth with top ranking professional clubs, as well as dealing with clubs with more challenging budgets, with Gill managing the Kidderminster Harriers Academy, as well as just under two seasons as Bath City's manager, whilst Pennock has had management spells with Port Talbot Town and Aberystwyth Town, as well as the Welsh Semi-Pro national team. Even if you took away their known 'YTFC' credentials, both would stand up as decent candidates.

Of course all will depend on what the ambitions of the current and the future owners are. This is the harder bit to judge - whether there will be a genuine attempt to make an instant return to the Football League (in which case the playing budget needs to be decent) or whether they want to seek a more of a slowburn approach, perhaps recognising that the club's current state may need a year of rebuilding to deal with the structural issues at Huish Park and the downward spiral the club has been on. A word of warning either way - there are a lot of wealthy ambitious club owners down in the National League, with even a club the size of Wrexham now planning for their 12th season at this level.

With the club's current ownership having failed to arrest the slide of the last few years, there are no guarantees - Barnet 13th, Chesterfield 15th, Hartlepool United 17th and Dagenham and Redbridge 18th give a clear warning of that. For a real exposure to the Dark Side, try York City who have slipped as far as 12th place in National League North. Only Leyton Orient offer clear hope in their promotion back to the EFL, but they did so by kicking out the Ownership, Executive and Management that caused their downfall, and by creating a radical reboot of their club over a two year period.

That's why Yeovil Town's absent leadership team need to step up to the plate and either prepare the club for the 2019-20 season, or quickly get out of the club and hand over the reins to new ownership that can. Now the takeover has collapsed, the general silence from the club, coupled with the 2019-20 season ticket package yet to be announced, along with the released and retained lists does feel like a club in a state of paralysis. Even if things are still up in the air, it would be more reassuring if the club did go on the record to map out their approach to the ownership, management and next season. Back on April 29th, the club said "we already have a definitive plan" to avoid the problems of the 2018-19 season - at present there is zero confirmed visibility of that plan being in place.

A very good summing up of a club in a Huge mess. No manager,players in limbo,owners giving no news to fans,who will withhold their Support next season. It is only about 6weeks to start of training for next season,every day without some news is very worrying indeed.
14/05/2019 12:32:57

Swaby said ...

I feel as though I refresh this website 50 times a day waiting for some news from the club. It’s absolutely agonising how these selfish pigs can sit at home in silence without as much as an apology to the fans or a ‘hang in there - we have this under control’. Followed the club around the country 20 years and this is the closest I’ve come to packing it in. How can the EFL stand by and accept this (not that we are their problem as of July) - surely owners have an obligation to communicate with paying supporters.

I personally think JG or TP would be very good appointments given where we are but why would they put their careers on the line? They both have it great where they are. I currently see us as managerless next season or a return for Darren Way - perhaps the only candidate out there that has nothing to lose and would take the job as it is. As much as it would pain me and would be a backward step, at least he could come in with knowledge of the squad and situation and he had the strength to work for this embarrassing ownership structure.
14/05/2019 13:22:51

Gill Green said ...

The "Owners" and Board are an utter embarrassment but what's done is done. So lets be positive and start afresh. Step one: lets immediately look to former players and contacts in the hope they will be cheap and desperate (surely Jerry Gill has more sense and wouldn't want to taint his fledgling managerial career). It requires experience and cash to get out of the National League and that thought must terrify Fry and Co. (or it would if they were bothered about football and supporters). So without new owners we're done. It's not the thought of non league football that will end my 50 odd years of attendance but the thought of Fry and his fraudsters fleecing supporters yet again (do you really expect STs to be significantly, if at all, cheaper next season?). I'm not alone and when you start alienating your hardcore support then there's only one way you're going. There's no reason why, with the right set up, that non league should be less entertaining (anything must be better than the last 5 years of dross) but the lead comes from the top and that's why a change of ownership is vital.
14/05/2019 13:48:16

Trevor said ...

I have been supporter since the Isis days and a season ticker holder for most of that time. I feel very let down by the owners and the board. They must start to communicate with us fans NOW. Next week may be too late.
14/05/2019 15:54:30

Dusty said ...

Surely there must be something going on behind the scenes to get the show back on the road? Although the owners/board are not popular and slow to act, they usually have acted eventually. It's 10 days since the last game so not long really to recruit a new manager, consider another take over bid and sort out player contracts. I don't expect any clarity until the end of May at least.
14/05/2019 18:36:11

Neil Langsdale said ...

Very tough being a Yeovil fan at the moment.The longer it is left for us to (a) get a manager,(b) announce who is/isn't retained and finally (c)get new owners the likelyhood is we increase our chances of falling straight through the National League considerably.What a farce indeed!
14/05/2019 18:56:29

Will P said ...

I'll just reiterate last weeks comments that still hold true and will continue to hold true until a takeover is completed.

Truly concerning times. The facts are as follows: YTFC is in debt to Norman Hayward who has legal charges secured against land ultimately owned by the holding company that owns the football club. The club to my knowledge has zero money to pay Norman Hayward back. All slightly ironic as it was Hayward and Frys gross ineptitude and farcical mismanagement of the club that created the debt in the first place. So we have a split company structure in debt. No leadership, no management team, no coaching team, no squad or prospect of a squad and are haemorrhaging support. We have zero season ticket holders for next season. And we just got relegated to non league, lost minimum circa 1 million per annum income and have zero commercial acumen or expertise at the club in any shape or form. If anyone thinks our stay in the conference will be short, they are utterly deluded. If we manage to stay up and avoid administration, it will be a minor miracle. Without a takeover being concluded in a some shape or form within the next few weeks, I genuinely fear for the survival of our great club. The support base need to wake up to this stark and alarming reality.
14/05/2019 22:23:00

Fromegreen said ...

The real mistake was moving Darren Way out. He should have been held in place to take responsibility/accountability for his work with the rest of the YTFC establishment.
Instead dust was put in our faces with a managerial change of no consequence, except to hide the guilty.
So now the story is: 'It's no one's fault'.
But actually it is....... Why has no one used the words: 'Disaster'and'Humiliation'. Then we might be getting a bit real and rebuild.
14/05/2019 23:07:09

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